Be Not an Open Vessel

Reading:   Numbers 19

What does it mean to be an open vessel within proximity of death and possible disease?  Now, for certain, this scriptural lesson was meant in the literal sense, a warning for the combat of plague and infectious disease, but I can't help but allow my imagination to grip and squeeze theses verses...

NUMBERS 19:14-15

14    This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. 

15    And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean. 

Why is this? Airborne pathogens, that is why, the floating unseen demons that ride the waves of ambiance to touch every corner and contaminate every surface - abounding in liquids.  If you had a drink with no cover in the presence of death, the drink would then carry the very DNA of death.  A covered drink, however, would not be subject to the same contaminants and would remain pure and consumable.

Turning that same lesson to humanity makes for a fun analogy - so, having been a bouncer for several years, I can easily attest to the seedy, unwholesome, sex crazed atmosphere of bars/clubs/ concerts and the like; however, it was my job and was the means by which I provided for my young family.  Here is the perfect example for my analogy...I had no choice, I could not quit the job and yet it was, on many occasions, a place I should not have been.  How did I, as a living vessel, avoid the wiles of my surroundings.  It's all about the lid people!  My lid was my wife, my children, the family I had created, my testimony of God, my faith, the wisdom I had gained from life experience, and above all, my own determination to be different - stronger than my surroundings!

Now, my lid wasn't always screwed on as tight as it should've been and there were days that I had to fight off the infection of my surroundings more strenuously than others but, for the most part, I kept my lid on tight and those experiences have made me who I am today.

The difference lies wholly in choice.  I did not attend these places for the same reasons as the patrons; it was my profession.  The environment, from a toxic perspective, was made by the hundreds of souls there for the enticements of alcohol, drugs, sex, pride, and money - each with its own levels of infection, whoredom, and enslavement.  Yet, if I unscrewed my lid just a little, believing I was strong enough to withstand, the infection would seep in and eventually burn me out.

I see it much like the doctor who puts on a mask and walks into surgery determined to rid some poor soul of infection by placing himself in the line of fire, or a fireman putting on his mask and walking into a building that everyone else is fleeing.  I could go on but essentially if these professionals opened their masks just a bit, unscrewed their lids, the killing disease and suffocating smoke would seep in and plant their seeds of destruction!

This is a great topic!  I feel like I have just scratched the surface and want to continue on but sadly must end.  I'm going to add this to my growing list of eventual books though because there has got to be some incredible stories of people rising above their surroundings because of the lids which kept their vessels clean...look for it!

~Kipling